Here is a photo of the fleur di lis the girls made in the yard next to the house they worked in. The "blocks" came from Reisie's house across the street. She will be moving soon so many people helped her move her rose bushes to neighboring yards for the time being. Reisie was very kind to all of us, feeding us pizza and giving us drinks. She let us cool off in her house too. Thanks to Cassandra Elmer for the photo.
Well the trip is officially over and we are on the way home. I thought that while we were working we really connected with our homeowners, Dennis and Vita. Some of the sights that we saw while driving through the ninth ward really hit me and showed how bad the damage caused by Katrina really was and is. It was a lot of fun, I learned a lot, and I would finitely do it again.
-alicia.
Rocking the edward cullen look. You know its awesome lol. When I am reduced to doing this you know that I am bored. -Skyler
This week has been one of the longest but one of the most eye-opening of my life. The first day gave my group a chance to connect with on ev of the home-owners, Vita. She is one of the most welcoming people I know. she provided us with food, cold drinks and hospitality. The next day allowed us to establish a relationship with Vita's husband, Dennis. He helped out with the construction and madeus laugh many, many times. I'm so glad we were able to form connections with Vita and Dennis and on that note I can only say: popeyes, ladder dancing, fleur de lis garden and smushed bananas. <3
megan donato :)
Today was a very productive day at the worksite. I think we have come a long way since the beginning of the week. All of us have gained new skils and we have become closer as friends. Taylor
Today we worked on the fence that we tore down yesterday while the chicks worked on a ceiling elseware. We miscalculated the position of the four by fours several times thus causing a quick job to take all day. Thank god that people the owners of the property offered to buy us pizza in order to escape our skimpy and normal homemade lunches.
SMG
Last evening papaw the coordinator of ocs approached me, immediately apprehensive I asked him how we did, and he said we exceeded his expectations for such a young group, that kim collins and I supervised, I taught them a quick science lesson, the use of using a fulcrom lever to lift large objects with little energy. After that we went and demolished an old fence, and managed to catch mad gecko's. One of which I think used to be a commercial super star. J.w
Today the girls (plus Ken) worked on insulation and sheetrock. All of our arms are very itchy. The homeowner is very nice and has kittens along with feeding us. I am starting to wonder whether controling a cordless drill is a genetic thing, because I can suddenly use one without hardly any experience.
Cassndra Elmer
Starting bright and early monday morning, I was feeling motivated and ready to work. We started in the morning with taki ng down a fence. The vegetation down here is mu ch thicker than in new york. Then we moved on to destroying a sidewalk using sledgehammer and a pickaxe. We finished anx then didnt really know what to do... Butit was good in general.
Zachary "amazing rapper" Whitenack.
In April 2011 we have again partnered with Operation Southern Comfort to rebuild lives in New Orleans. Our group consists of 8 youth and 5 adults. We left Watertown at 4am on a Saturday morning to undertake the 2 day journey. We had an overnight stop at Gateway Baptist Church in Bluff City TN just south of Bristol where we slept (sort of) on the gym floor.
The weather turned to rain around Harrisburg PA. The radar maps looked extremely ominous but we traveled between 2 fronts through much of Virginia until just north of Lexington. Then it really started to lightning in spectacular fashion and pour. We made an earlier than expected stop to see if it would blow over. We got lucky. Later we found out there were tornado watches around us and several people were killed by this front. We drove out of it and things were dry in Bristol although still windy. Dinner was at Sonic and then off to the movies.
Sunday dawned clear and sunny and the wind was gone. Beautiful weather for travel. We were at McDonald's at 6am waiting for them to open. Our journey was unremarkable and we ate lunch at Popeye's.
More details to come.
